


Already Infected

by Shepard_Shakedown



Series: A thousand first chapters [2]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Escape from earth, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:21:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21568318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shepard_Shakedown/pseuds/Shepard_Shakedown
Summary: In the beginning the quarentine was voluntary. No one wanted the virus to escape. No one wanted to know what would happen if it escaped. Then on verge of extinction it was too late. There was no way off earth. Or at least there shouldn't have been.Then they arrived.After breaching a planet wide quarentine Shepard must send the turian scout team back with a warning to never return.
Series: A thousand first chapters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554043
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Already Infected

**Author's Note:**

> This fic will not be updating regularly as it's in a long list of fics to do after my main project (the series titled Falling Up). Updates will be sporadic as I often work on miscellaneous wips as a break from my main projects.

The site of the first outbreak had been nuked. But the second wasn't so lucky. There'd been less warning with site two, the infected pouring through the streets and dispersing far more rapid than the first outbreak. 

The nature of the infection had changed too. But that was expected. it mutated as it jumped hosts again and again and within a few years it had taken almost everything. There'd been a few cures over the years. But nothing stayed effective for long. In the end humanity couldn't keep up with the mutations and quarantine took effect. 

They could have left once. They could have abandoned the planet and lived among the stars. But there was no telling who was a carrier. There was no telling which ship would carry the virus off the planet.

Once the quarantine was voluntary. It wasn't any longer. 

When  _ they _ landed it wasn't a secret. People noticed. They saw the shuttle enter the atmosphere and it became a race of scavengers desperate to leave the planet. She was simply the closest to where it landed. 

From orbit, there were few signs of sentient life. It was intentional. If it could be seen from space it could be seen by the infected. Cities that once thrived on the surface were long overgrown. Satellites and space debris had long fallen to the planet leaving the skies empty as well. It didn't mean that there wasn't life. Most of it was scattered between underground settlements and roaming caravans. 

She tended to travel on her own. It made it easy to sneak up on the shuttle when it landed. Easy to set up her own series of safeguards close to their camp. It wasn't quite routine to her but nothing ever was in the red graves. If you relied to heavily on structure or routine you were likely to end up dead. There was a reason it was called the graves. There was a reason no one traveled through there if they had a choice. The newcomers didn't know that yet. 

Most of the scavengers would hesitate before entering the graves. Those that didn't wouldn't last long. Neither would those that did. 

It wasn't long before the graves split them up. Her drones counted one dead already. It meant she had to act fast. She dropped down in front of the closest one and watched as they flinched back from her closeness. 

She wasn't the most intimidating but this one didn't know what she was capable of. She pulled a blade from her side flinging it over the newcomers shoulder into the pursuing beast. It screeched in pain scattering anything in a mile radius. 

She pushed the newcomer out her way as she pulled her gun from it hollister quick to fire four shots into its eye. It'd been one of the armored plague beasts. Annoying but not the most deadly thing in the graves. But then one of them was already dead.

The newcomer spoke words she didn't understand. She could only guess that it was a thanks by their stance. She pulled a square piece off her gauntlet throwing the drone into the air to scan for the others. She pulled up the holo screen on her gauntlet. The map of the area around them caught the newcomers eyes drawing them closer than they should be. She pointed to the markers of the others. Before pointing back to their camp. 

Their camp wasn't the safest location but it was a point they all knew and it could be moved. The newcomer tapped the side of their helmet speaking again and she watched the points file back to camp slowly. 

She let tapped the newcomers arm to get their attention before pointing to another point. It was a risk of course, but everything in the graves was. She didn't wait to see if they followed. 

They did follow, occasionally commenting on things. There wasn't any point in replying they'd understand her as much as she did them. It wasn't a long walk fifteen minutes from the newcomers camp before her nav pinged. The trees towered over the building and not much of it wasn't covered in moss or vines but it hadn't collapsed yet. 

She shattered the glass of the door ducking under the metal push bar into the lobby. The newcomer grumbled but followed eyeing the sign above the desk welcoming them to redfield labs. 

She vaulted the front desk eyeing the flashing switch that confirmed her suspicions of the place. It was likely overrun by the infected, not that it mattered to her. The one following her however. 

She flipped it. 

The lights flickered to life as she pulled a rifle from her back. Gunfire would attract the infected en masse but there would be little choice in close quarters like this. Her scouting had tagged redfield as a test lab for technologies to combat the virus. But like everything else it fell. 

The way in was quieter than expected. Probably a result of the lockdown that sealed the place. It would probably take a while for the facility to reset. They needed to move fast.

She scanned an old fire map on their way in making note of the layout. The lab she wanted was deeper down than she liked. But then anything below the surface was a risk either to cave ins or ambushes. She traced their route through the dust for newcomer to see. 

They stayed close during the short trip too relaxed to know the danger they were in. Though they did look ready to fight. They'd also shut up after the third warning. The halls amplified noise and they didn't need help attracting the infected. 

They hesitated when they reached their destination. The door riddled with bullet holes and more than a few gashes. Dried blood coated the walls around it the trails moving deeper into to lab. She winced at the creak of the door when she opened it the newcomers gun ready behind her. 

She eyed the shelves, the labels caked in a layer dust she removed with a gloved hand. She knew what she was looking for; A device barely five millimeters in diameter. Or at least it was stored in a capsule that size. She paused at the plastic box containing them. More than half of them had burst but there were a few left. She only needed one.

She eyed the gun beside them before writing off the rusted injector to rummage for a needle elsewhere. Her companion was still rambling away in a language she couldn't speak. You'd think someone from space would know that. She peeled the packaging off a needle checking the size of it with the device. Then she stuck them in the side of the neck careful to hold them still as she drew a few milliliters of blood. She stopped removing the needle and pressing enough to remove the air from it before stabbing them again to inject the device. She let them go discarding the needle in a bin on the wall. 

She heard the newcomer hiss spinning to point their weapon at her. The device she'd injected beeped beneath their skin as it started working as she mirrored the process on herself. 

“What the fuck? Are you crazy?" The newcomer snapped. “What was that?" 

"I'm not crazy.” 

The newcomer tilted their head. “What the… you speak?”

She pulled off her helmet. 

The virus had made it obvious she was infected once. Her left eye was completely black now the veins around it a black spiderweb. She rolled her left shoulder. “I wasn't going to waste my breath when I couldn't understand you.” She glanced towards the lab door. "it's a translator. I don't know how it works so I can't explain why it's working now. I have one under my skin as well.” 

They lowered their weapon a bit. “a translator?”

“You don't have time for this" She muttered. She could hear movement in the hall. It wouldn't be long before the whole place was crawling again. “Look you landed in a piss hole. Probably the worst place on this planet. Its crawling with infected like the ones that attacked your team. You need to relocate. Or better yet leave. Because every single one of my people that saw you land is going to come after you. They're going to risk attacking you. And let me tell you they're a lot smarter and a lot more desperate than the infected.”

"And what about you?" They countered. 

She huffed a laugh pointing to her face. “I'm a living biohazard. I don't know how your people will react to the virus. But if I were you I'd hope your fallen man doesn't have a heartbeat.” She pulled the drone from her wrist again sliding it under the door. 

“What's that supposed to mean?"

“It means the virus is highly adaptable and has tendency to reanimate the  _ dead. _ It was originally developed as a cure all an end to all illnesses. The problem with that is that it's also very unstable and incredibly infective.” She scanned the hall. "When it was first tested, people on their deathbeds could heal to near perfect health within hours. But it never lasted. After a day the mutations started, then the mind destabilized, people became paranoid and hostile and eventually stopped being people. They aren't sentient anymore. They don't think. They just kill.” She opened the door a crack.

“And you just used it anyway?"

“No. The first lab fell activating quarantine procedures. Then they sent a team in to investigate. It got out a few centuries ago.”

“And a cure..."

“We've found a few. But they don't  _ stay _ effective. like I said the virus adapts and we don't have the resources to keep up with it. The current cure is a bullet. It's been the most effective one since it broke containment the first time. Now shut up until we get back to your camp.” She pulled a knife from her hip flinging it into the skull of the infected in the hall. 

She pulled the newcomer down the way they came taking detours when their route had more than a few infected.

“Why aren't we shooting them?"

“Because getting swarmed down here is death sentence and we don't know how many there are.” 

"Riiight." They muttered something that sounded like a curse under their breath. 

She rolled her eyes. "This facility used to do cure research. It broke containment." She pulled the stairwell door open. "It killed everyone. There could be anywhere between twenty and five hundred infected down here." The newcomer made a strange clicking sound. "The labs go deeper. Not all the levels are on the map."

They followed a little closer as they ascended the steps. "Right, you did say it was a piss hole." They muttered.

"The red graves is one of earth's worst dead zones." They were close to the exit. Almost close enough to reactivate the lockdown. 

"Of course. The  _ graves _ ." She could hear the sarcasm in their tone. "Of course we landed in a dead zone."

"Least you didn't land in the crater." She quipped back. They made the clicking sound again. "Lethal levels of radiation on top of earth's biggest dead zone. It's a nest of cannibalistic G-types."

They paused. "Do I even want to know what a G-type is?"

She glanced back. "The kind I saved you from was a K-type. Defensive and feral relatively low infectivity. Mostly because it doesn't leave much left of its dinner." They flinched. "G-types are different. They leave their leftovers to fester with a special surprise inside. In short they breed. The infection they carry is slow to take. Its hosts are usually still alive when it's spawn eats their way out."

The newcomer gripped the railing, letting out another series of clicks and curses. "Spirits."

She hummed continuing up. "There aren't any known G-types around here. We destroy the nests when we find them. Fire has proven fairly effective." She pushed open a door to the hall they'd entered through. 

"We?" They watched her activate a terminal on the wall.

She brushed the thick layer of dust off the screen searching for the emergency lockdown. "Did you think I worked alone? Ash, is doing a supply run to a local settlement."

"Alone?" They didn't protest as she pulled them out of the labs. 

"I'm infected. It's not safe for me to go with her."

"Right. For her or you?"

"For everyone involved."

Of the drones she'd sent out three were still following the outsiders. The other was back it's dock on her arm. All but one of the newcomers ground team had made it back to their ship and the one that hadn't, was accounted for. They were still dead when the when the newcomers comms activated. She couldn't hear the other side of the conversation but she could guess.

"This is Vakarian. Had to make a detour with the local. We're returning to… what?" They made noise. "This one's sentient." They paused listening. "Kera isn't back yet?"

She nudged vakarian in the side. "Drone says they're still dead."

"I…" They looked at her. "Oh, you did say that…" she pulled up the footage. "Yeah I'm still here. Kera isn't coming. She's dead." They paused. "I'll explain when we get back."

"Tell them to leave if we aren't there in an hour." She pulled her helmet back on. "Scans say a hoards coming. If they hit us we won't survive."

They stared at her for a moment. "I… How long's an hour?"

"A while. you'll know when time's up."

"They're saying you should evacuate without us if we don't make it back soon." Vakarian paused. "There's a hoard coming."

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in seeing more of this fic feel free to let me know in the comments and if you're interested please check out the attached series for similar works and details about projects within this series of first chapters.


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